484 



PEOCEEDmGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 5, 



two lines in length and one in breadtli, and placed closely together. 

 They are elliptical, acuminate, with central leaf-scar, the form and 

 markings of which could not be perceiyed. The leaves are thick at 

 the base and short, slightly ascending, and then curving downward. 

 The branches are slender, straight, and very imiform in thickness in 

 the portions observed. This plant may be identical with the L. Ghe- 

 mungense of Hall, from the Devonian rocks of I^ew York ; but I am 

 not aware that any specimens of that species hitherto observed show 

 the leaf-scars or leaves ; and, when these are obtained, should the 

 present species prove distinct, I would name it L. Gaspianum*. Its 

 characters, as above stated, are represented in figs. 3 a-d. 



3. Prototaxites, gen. nov. (Pig. 4.) 



Woody trunks with concentric rings of growth and medullary rays. 

 Cells of pleurenchyma scarcely in regular series, thick-walled, and 

 cylindrical, with a double series of spiral fibres. Disc-structure in- 

 distinct in the specimens observed. 



I propose the above generic appellation for a tree having the spirally 

 marked cells characteristic of the genera Taooites and Spiropitys of 

 Goeppert, but differing from any conifer known to me in the cylin- 

 drical form and loose aggregation of the wood- cells, as seen in the 



Fig. 45. 



Sb^crg 



Po 



Fig. 4. Frototaxites Logani. a, cross-section, magnified 40 diams., showing 

 growth-line and medullary raj ; b, longitudinal section (300 diams.) ; 

 e, transverse section (300 diams.). 



cross-section, in which particular it more nearly resembles the young 

 succulent twigs of some modern conifers than their mature wood.- 

 A fine sihcified trunk of this tree was brought from Gaspe by Sir 



* L. {Sagenaria) Veltheimianum, another ancient and widely distributed species, 

 resembles the aboTC in the form of the areoles and position of the scars ; but the 

 leaves and young branches diifer, and my specimens show no median furrow in 

 the areoles. L. nothum (linger) also seems closely allied. 



